Author: Rachel

If you love cooking for your friends and family, maybe it is high time you did that more often. Why limit to special occasions like birthday parties or national holidays when you have so many weekends ahead?

But, throwing a party for your best friends and closest family members could prove a difficult task, especially if there is food involved. I think that the hardest thing at such a party is not necessarily planning ahead and gathering all your favorite people together at the same time, but satisfying everyone’s tastes in terms of food.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to spend hundreds of hours in the kitchen cooking large amounts of food just so you can please everyone attending your gathering. If you haven’t heard of raclette grills yet, I think you should read my following disclosure about the experience using a raclette grill and what you can do with it.

Chef’s experience

Sweat no more as you won’t require the skills of a Cordon Bleu chef to cook delicious meals using raclette grills. In fact, if you can mix some ingredients together and not overcook your food, you’re pretty much ready to go.

A good raclette grill won’t cost you a fortune but will help you save hours of cooking and will last you many years from now on as long as you don’t forget to clean each piece individually after each use.

What exactly is a raclette grill?

A raclette grill is made from small individual cooking pans that allow you to cook at least half a dozen one-portion meals at once. It can be used to cook in the same time veggies, cheese, all sorts of meats, rice, potatoes, and fish. The great thing is that you won’t be using many ingredients and you can experiment with numerous recipes at once.

Moreover, you’ll be able to satisfy even the pickiest choices for your guests. What I like more about raclettes is the easiness of cooking them. All you have to do is put all the ingredients together and don’t forget to flip the content once in a while to be evenly cooked on all sides.

From grilled cheese to juicy steaks, French fries or double-baked potatoes, there are few recipes that won’t fit in your individual raclette grill. You can even prepare delicious frittatas, tacos, burritos, grilled veggies, and pancakes all at once.

If you choose to cook meat, I suggest marinate it previously so it will get all those delicious herbs and spices before preparing it. The gold key is to try to cook the same type of ingredients at once so that flavors won’t’ combine too much. Rice, frittatas, grilled vegetables, and pancakes can be cooked together at once. Fish and meat should be always cooked separately.

Room organization can be a challenging task if you haven’t tried it before. I know a lot of my friends have a hard time organizing their stuff, especially if they live in small rented apartments that never seem to have enough room for their personal belongings.

I like a bit of variety and vivid colors, but I hate untidy spaces. If my desk is filled with pens, chewing gum, perhaps one cup of coffee I’ve finished and never took to the kitchen sink, and some other things, I cannot concentrate on what I have to do that day. Most of my buddies aren’t like this and I definitely have nothing against people who say that they prefer a bit of mess as it helps them stay creative.

For me, though, that’s never worked. So, whenever I start to reorganize my living space, I usually take everything out and place it on the floor per categories. Then, I start looking for things that I don’t really use and can give away. This includes anything from clothes, cosmetics, and shoes, to notebooks and agendas I purchased five years ago and will never get to fill up with notes.

Next, I put items that are alike together and place them in the same cabinets or drawers. Organizing my pantry is one of my favorite things to do whenever I have a bit of spare time. I always check for the ingredients to see whether I risk being left without flour, rice, quinoa, and various other things I utilize on a regular basis.

Labeling isn’t really for me because I usually remember what I put in those compartments. Nevertheless, not all people live alone, so labels do come in handy if you want your husband to bring you that thing you’ve placed in a particular basket from a particular part of your kitchen.

Something I found challenging at the beginning of my organizational adventures was putting everything back in the right place. My boyfriend seems to have a problem in this sense, which is to say that whenever he uses something, he leaves it on the kitchen table. This includes packets from snacks.

I’ve been looking into minimalism for several months now. On the one hand, I want to stop buying useless kitchen appliances because apparently, I am addicted to them. On the other, I don’t want to get attached to things; I want to get attached to people and live experiences instead of raising money to purchase this or that.

That’s why once in a while, I organize giveaways or simply ask some of my Facebook friends whether they need one item or the other.

I’ve learned a lot of things ever since I moved out of my parents’ place, and one of them is related to methods that I can use to make my apartment smell good. What bothered me right after having rented it was the fact that it didn’t feel like home. I don’t know if the people who had lived there had been old or had owned old stuff, but the fact is that I couldn’t use any odorizer to get rid of that pesky scent. It got so bad that I couldn’t even face the idea of sleeping at my place.

I did a bit of research and today, I am going to share with you three major things that have helped me with this problem.

Start out by cleaning everything, and I do mean absolutely everything

So there was old furniture in my apartment I couldn’t possibly get rid of, but I could use some tips and tricks to get rid of or at least improve its smell. The first thing that I did was concoct a solution composed of part water and part vinegar to make sure that I disinfected every surface in the place.

Luckily for me, my clothes were still packed, so they didn’t get to suffer from the scent contagion. I used that vinegar solution absolutely everywhere, and by this I mean that I wiped every surface on and in the furniture. I even added a bit of lemon to it to spice things up. You know they say that cleanliness is godliness, and I’m definitely a fan of that saying.

Don’t be afraid to use air fresheners, be they homemade or store-bought

YouTube has done wonders for me in recent years, in that I learned a lot of things using this platform. One of the channels I was lucky enough to come across is Rachel Talbott’s. This lovely lady creates a plethora of home-related videos, from those pertaining to summer snacks for kids to implementing healthy self-care habits and DIY projects. I strongly recommend checking her videos out, and that’s because she genuinely has pieces of advice for folks who want to learn how to manage their living space, clean it, and live as healthy and happy as possible.

It’s one of her videos that has taught me how to make a homemade air freshener. All you need is some water and a little bit of essential oil of your choosing. Of course, this method might not work if the essential oil isn’t of a particularly high quality.

Get rid of your garbage regularly and let the outside in

One of the things I like to do right early in the morning when I get up is open all of the windows in my apartment. I even do some breathing exercises and they help me start my day better. My point is that you should try to do the same or at least find a way to bring nature into your home. You could at least get some potted herbs like rosemary, oregano, or even lavender and use them in your food. You wouldn’t believe how nice they smell when you rub their leaves between fingers.

Ever since I can remember, I was never able to decide whether I was a dog or a cat person. That’s why once I grew up and got my own place, I got two pets, a doggy and a kitty. I can’t say which one of them I love most, but what makes me happy is that they get along perfectly. I guess that’s due to the fact that they were raised together and now sleep together and sometimes even eat from the same bowl.

While my family also loves animals, my mother used to nag me because of the pet hair that could endanger my health. That’s why I decided to do a bit of research to see just how harmful could dander and pet hair be. I’ll start by saying that there are thousands of people living in the United States who have allergies, but I am fortunate enough not to be one of them.

There’s nothing unsanitary with pet hair, let me tell you. If you take good care of your dog or cat and groom them once in a while, there won’t be any infectious risks involved. Of course, this practice might be less necessary if you are a cat owner, and that’s because they take care of their own hygiene. My own cat has issues because she swallows a lot of her own hair, and I try to take care of the issue by giving her specialized food.

Something that has helped me deal with the situation was installing air filters in about three rooms of the house. Those are the places where I spend most of my time when I’m not at work. Also, nothing beats a clean working and living environment, so you might do yourself a favor and invest in one of the many electric brooms for pet hair available out there. Some of the models I came across are very budget-friendly, so you won’t even have to spend a lot of money.

If you live in a household where someone actually suffers from an allergy, you need to get a stick vacuum outfitted with a HEPA filter. I also suggest getting rid of the rugs you might have in your home especially if you have heaps of laminate floors. What’s the point caring for them during the warm season, when the chance of shedding is extremely high?

Brush your cat or dog every two days or so. It would be great to do it on a daily basis, but let’s be realistic and understand that sometimes we’re too tired or don’t have the time to do this. On the one hand, brushing your pet is a pleasurable experience for your dog or cat, and you’ll be giving them the feeling that you genuinely care for them and offering them the attention that they might crave when you’re away from home.